News
Digital Schoolhouse SuperSmash Bros Tournament
To help promote E-Sports among the school community and develop student understanding of the gaming industry, we took part in the Digital Schoolhouse Supersmash Bros Tournament.
This is a National competition where we are able to battle it out as players and shoutcasters against schools from all over the UK. The competition is made up of virtual Regional Qualifiers against schools from the local area, a Semi-Final against teams from across the South of England and then a Regional Final where the 2 winning schools and best shoutcaster would complete for overall victory.
Whilst competing in the competition students from all year groups volunteered to take on different roles including: event manager, tournament admin, team managers, players, social media managers and shoutcasters.
On Wednesday 3rd February, our e-sports team, V4, took over the school’s twitter page and battled it out against 5 other schools from around the South and East of England in our Regional Qualifier. The whole event was live streamed via the Digital Schoolhouse’s account on Twitch.tv, with our students making several appearances throughout the day.
Our students showed their skills and won their first battle against Fulston Manor School, but unfortunately lost their next 3 against the other schools. However, they rounded the day off with a final win against Southend High School for Boys. After being awarded points for each match, we ended the day in joint second place.
This unfortunately meant we didn’t qualify for the South Semi-Final, but our shoutcasters, TJ and Freddie in Year 11 did a fantastic job at commentating all afternoon were invited to shoutcast in the Semi-Final.
Event Manager, Luke, in Year 13 said, 'It was an interesting and challenging experience being in charge of the Regional Qualifier in school as there were things we needed to overcome. But the players played well and we tried to win all our matches, although unfortunately it wasn’t possible this time. But next year we will win!'
On Wednesday 16th March, TJ, Freddie and Miss Read travelled up to the Digital Institute in Stratford, which is part of Staffordshire University in London. During the day, our students heard from a range of industry experts, and watched 6 teams battle it out in a professional e-sports arena. They were then given the opportunity to shoutcast over one of the final matches, but despite showing charisma and confidence, Freddie and TJ were out-hosted by two older students and came second overall for their abilities. This made them first reserve for the National Final should anyone be unable to attend.
'TJ & Freddie performed admirably as shoutcasters in their regional qualifier and were very close runners-up for the best shoutcaster at the south semi-final,' said Luke, Tournament Coordinator from Digital Schoolhouse.
The winner of the south semi-final was not able to attend the final, so on Tuesday 29th March, TJ, Freddie and Mr Smith travelled to gFinity E-Sports Arena, in London, for the grand final of the competition. During the day, Freddie and TJ heard from a range of industry experts about how to break into the world of E-Sports and the different career pathways on offer. They were then paired up with professional shoutcasters and were live streamed on Twitch.tv and YouTube all day. The whole production was outstanding and students experienced what it’s like to shoutcast and host a live broadcast.
'It was a great experience and very professional and overall was a great time,' said TJ, 'I’m quite interested in becoming a shoutcaster or moving into game development, so it was a really useful and interesting experience for me.'
Unfortunately, despite showing charisma and confidence, Freddie and TJ were just out-hosted. They came a very admirable second place in the Best Shoutcaster category overall. This is an outstanding accomplishment and shows off their hard work and dedication to the world of e-sports.
We want to offer huge congratulations to Freddie and TJ and we look forward to the next competition! A recording of the South Semi-Final and National Final are available to watch here should you want to see what Freddie and TJ got up to. You can also read about it from the Digital Schoolhouse point of view here.
E-Sports club runs every Wednesday and Thursday evening from 3:05pm to 4:15pm in A13, with students of all year groups welcome to attend. The current games of choice are Mario Kart, SuperSmash Bros and Just Dance.
Watch this space for news about our Trust-wide Mario Kart Competition.